Funimation to launch anime streaming service in UK

Funimation, the American licensor of Japanese anime, is revamping its streaming service and plans to expand its reach into the UK market in 2016.

Along with debuting a new logo, Funimation -- which owns English-language rights to popular series such as Dragon Ball, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Attack on Titan -- has announced plans to launch FunimationNow.com in the UK in February, describing it as an "all-new anime streaming service, with completely redesigned mobile apps."

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The site -- which is currently not actually accessible from a UK IP address, somewhat ironically -- will offer anime series as they air in Japan, with English subtitles, and a selection of titles with dubs. "We'll still be bringing you all the subtitled and English-dubbed anime you love, completely ad-free -- plus, a sleek new design supported by a first-class user experience," Funimation said. "But that's not all, throughout the year we'll continue introducing a bunch of cool new features as we prepare for the May launch of a reimagined website experience that will revolutionise the way fans discover, watch, share, and connect with anime."

The FunimationNow portal will be heralded with redesigned Android, iOS, and Kindle apps, and see a Windows 10 Universal app launched. These will support Chromecast and Airplay. Brand new apps for Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV will also appear.

In May, the entire website experience will be updated -- hopefully no longer forcing British visitors to Funimation's core website to complete a captcha before it loads -- and a new suite of console apps for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Roku devices will launch.

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The move is quite a change of direction for the company, which has previously geolocked its streaming titles away from UK viewers, even when it had licensed rights for all English-language territories. Funimation previously appeared to show little interest in the British anime market in general, instead sub-licensing its titles to UK labels for home release. Whether that practise continues, or if Funimation will begin releasing shows and movies on Blu-ray and DVD here itself, remains to be seen.

The February launch will come weeks into the current anime season in Japan, with dozens of new series several episodes into their runs. Simulcasts of Japanese animation have become common in recent years, as services such as Crunchyroll, Animax, and Viewster have made titles available internationally and cutting off older, less reputable routes to the content, such as fansubbing.

Pricing and exact features of FunimationNow in the UK have yet to be revealed.